Along with their four-disc BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER set, La-La Land has also just released a new CD of Jack Nitzsche's score for the 1985 Romancing the Stone sequel THE JEWEL OF THE NILE (the original soundtrack release featured less than seven minutes of score).

"Aulakh films in muted colors and wide-open deep-focus takes that play up nature and give room to get inside these people’s heads. The score jumps from chilling, Trent Reznor–like ambiance to more spacey woodwinds and chimes, maintaining the mystique even as the romance grows steamier. 'We’re a frail species,' one character says. 'People die because they can’t live anymore.'"

Brian Welk, Village Voice

"With its faux-realist handheld camera and moody soundtrack of sustained glockenspiel and cello dolloped generously onto David’s gloomy wanderings, 'Autumn Lights' has the forced gravity of a routine network mystery series, except there’s no real mystery to be solved here. Like a landlocked Bergman chamber drama divested of any ambivalence regarding human relationships, the film methodically works toward its moralistic thesis, fleshing out its disapproval of Marie’s sexual promiscuity with each aborted romantic tryst and subsequent spell of emotional frustration. That it gradually devolves into a succession of monologues whereby David mansplains the importance of emotional commitment feels like a natural endpoint. It’s a trajectory so dull, leaden, and unambiguously misogynist that by the end it’s easy to find oneself longing for some spectacular nature photography as distraction."

Carson Lund, Slant Magazine

BLUE JAY - Julian Wass

"Duplass’ Jim is a vulnerable romantic; there’s an empathetic warmth to Paulson’s Amanda. Together, they inhabit all the qualities that made them an ideal match so many years ago. But at the tiny moments where their reflections on a storybook past hit a noticeable hiccup, their wordless reactions also hint at the reasons for their eventual departure. (It’s also helped by the economic dispersal of Julian Wass’ lovely, airy score, which doesn’t soar over these two as much as it hovers near them.)"

Steve Greene, IndieWire

"And if the use of black and white sounds overly precious, it’s actually a smart choice; the monochromatic scheme not only enhances the sense of nostalgia that permeates the entire film, but it also washes out the landscape, converting the mountainous California region into the kind of spiritually arid landscape that people like Amanda and Jim would feel the need to flee. The film’s look is ably matched by a subtle and plaintive score by Julian Wass ('“Other People')."

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS - Mark Isham

"Initially, Stephen Herek’s insufferably schmaltzy film takes up the idea of the constantly uprooted child, the recent premise of films such as 'Don’t Call Me Son' and 'Standing Tall,' as though it were going to tell something new. Or, at least, that’s what the caliber of the cast seems to suggest. Instead, we’re offered a Disney-fied tale where every scene is suffocated by an intrusive score that tells us with bludgeoning precision whether the main point of said scene is its sense of humor, sadness, adventure, or mere lightheartedness. 'The Great Gilly Hopkins' never executes its narrative fantastically enough for its triteness to be forgiven, forgotten, or excused as 'a film for children.' At the same time, it’s too infantile to be taken seriously."

"Toward that end, Tykwer and his team of regular collaborators use the striking setting to potent effect. Cinematographer Frank Griebe’s widescreen compositions emphasize the desert’s empty stretches and its unlikely vertical intrusions (the international production was shot mostly in Morocco). From luminous Vivaldi to the percussive foreboding of compositions by Johnny Klimek and the director, the musical shifts suit the visuals."

Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

TOO LATE - Robert Allaire

"Mr. Hawkes resists the urge to overplay the character’s toughness or his damaged soul, and that makes him all the more watchable as the camera trails him, often as he’s smoking a cigarette or drinking booze, while music pulses through those unbroken shots."

Ken Jaworski, The New York Times

TOWER - Osei Essed

"Ultimately, that’s what I’ll remember about 'Tower' -- the emotion. It is raw and urgent in ways that documentaries about historic events rarely are. From the effective, mostly piano-only score to the sweeping camerawork that captures the event in ways that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise, 'Tower' sticks in your gut and works at your heart. The final act, which turns to the citizens who worked together to stop a madman, had me in tears. 'Tower' takes a story of violence and madness and turns it into one of heroism and survival. It’s a message we could all stand to hear right about now."